Poems, Prayers and Promises

Yeah, I just figured I better write something like and update on here. Haven't really had time to write anything earth shattering, I've had way to many other paper type things so use up my desire to write. I guess I could post one of my papers, but I don't know how that would be any better than not posting lol.

Alright so quick update, last week: good. The only thing I remember about the whole week was that if I ever get stranded in the middle of a desert with a group of people, I would be better off not listening to any of their advice lol. We did a group exercise in one of my classes that was supposed to show that we did better as a group than as individuals (synergy) but I ended up getting a score that was like twice that of our group. So much for synergy.

Easter was good. Great to get to be home for a day. Got to go see Kathryn's play again. It was still funny the third time lol.

Then yesterday I spent the entire day flying out to Omaha to get some Subway. Well actually, we flew some people out there to do whatever, but all I did was go to subway to study and eat while we waited for them. So it was like I flew out there to go to subway.....

And then today......more school, tests, meetings, bla bla. Then Josh and I BBQed some pork while throwing Gas and plastic chairs into our little bonfire. Craziness. Sorry, forgot to get pictures again.

The only picture I took while we hiked around in the Deam wilderness. This was about 5 minutes into the whole thing and after that I totally forgot to take pictures. A photo just doesn't do it justice anyway. 

Our camp in HNF with flash. 

Fire in front of our tent without flash. 

I thought this one was cool because it caught some of the sparks above the fire. 

Ahh. I don’t know how I was able to handle not having a spring break in home school. This past week was a well timed break in the constant drone of school. The only thing I wish I had done that I didn’t was take more pictures. I carried my camera with me just about all week and took a grand total of 4 pictures. And three were of the same thing. But I’ll post the pictures I have and maybe some more will trickle in from others that can remember to use their camera. Mom just got a new one so I know she had to have taken some.

The first half of the week I enjoyed making the one and only big concern of my life fixing the brake line on my former vehicle, the infamous brown truck. It was just nice not to have to worry about anything for awhile. And of course the entire week the cooking was unparalleled.

The second half of the week was a tad busier. I got to watch the dress rehearsal for the play/musical Kathryn’s in Wednesday night. I was able to see the finished product Saturday night but it means so much more when you’ve seen it “in the making”. Then Thursday Dad and I headed down to the Hoosier National Forest and did some hiking. We looked around for Patton Cave but didn’t find it. I have the Lat/Longs for it now though so next time…… And actually we got pretty close just looking around. It’s not to hard to figure out there’s a cave around when there’s sink holes all around. But we were concerned about making it back to our campsite by dark so we didn’t look very hard, and made a bee line across the Deam wilderness for where we had left our car. 3 hours later…….lol. It took a little longer than expected but it was still an awesome hike. It didn’t look like too many people make it back there. So then we camped, got up the next day and ate at the Abe Martin lodge, went to the lake to fix the boat dock for Mom’s Dad, and then headed home.

I was home for a couple hours and then I headed back down to Bloomington to hang out down there. Once again I forgot to take picture…..but I had my camera the whole time. Kara has a few pics on her Blog. Strange things happen when four guys stand around burning meat out there at night……or having the meat take forever to start burning might be a little closer to the truth. Nathan brought me a, uh, very special heart felt card that we quickly turned around and took over to the Wegener’s so I could pass it on to Kristen. It was hilarious but I haven’t really found out how much trouble I’m in yet…..she didn’t say much but I did get a hand shake so it may not be too bad.

So that’s pretty much my week in a more words than needed.

Time passes so quickly these days. While a purist might try and correct me on this point on the grounds that a minute is a minute so time can’t pass quicker now than it has before unless your into the weird quirks of quantum physics, in all practicality I honestly don’t know where the time goes. I just registered for next semester’s classes the other day and realized that that was going to be the last time I registered for fall classes in my major. This point in life was just a distant indiscernible image shrouded in the haze of the unknown not that long ago; and now here I am.

Thinking about this time warp that life seems to be in right now instills a sense of urgency in me; as it should. Am I using this time that passes so quickly now in the best way possible to further the kingdom of God? Well, that’s something that bugged me. For one thing, what does that look like right now? What things am I not doing that I should and are doing that I shouldn’t. Right now God has put me at Purdue to pursue a degree for purposes only he knows now. My job is to do the best I can in this and trust the finale to him and to prepare myself to be a Godly man and, Lord willing, eventually a husband.

Remaining portion of original post edited out, beginning of dubbed in material:

A person who is in their final hours here on earth has the ultimate perspective on how they spent the fleeting years of their life. It’s all out there for analysis at that point, no new chapters to be added. I would think it would be strange to look back on a life time of things that had been so uncertain but are now just facts of history. Moses did some reflecting when he realized his remaining time on earth was limited. In Deut. 32 we have an awesome example of how to keep from getting “time vertigo”, or how to keep a perspective on life that is long term and not short sighted. Moses starts by praising God and recalling the history between God and Israel. He recalls the good and the bad. The times when Israel was unfaithful and how God forcefully guided them back to him and the times when He gave them victory over their adversaries. He brings to mind the promises the Lord made concerning future unfaithfulness and makes great promises about how it wouldn’t even make sense for another nation to try and stand against them when they have the Rock on their side. At the end of all this, Moses encourages the entire nation to rejoice with him in what they had just recalled about the Lord and to be sure to make it known to their children and future generations. For as Moses said near the end of this passage “[these] are not just idle words for you – they are your life” Hmm, both literally and figuratively.

This little passage, probably often skipped over by people as just “another one of those Moses songs” was a real encouragement to me. I started writing this before I had read Deut. 32 and was struggling to grasp exactly what I was trying to say. It’s awesome how God can bring a passage along and show you things you need to see right when you need to see it, if we only listen to him by reading his word. If any of you ever feel like your getting “spatial disorientation” in life I would encourage you to read this passage and see how Moses recalled how God had provided direction to Israel and had kept the promises He had made both for judgment and aid, and how he then claimed God’s promises to be their Rock in the future, all while thanking and praising the Lord. What an encouragement. After that nice little run-on sentence followed by a sentence fragment I think I better end here lol.

Alright, well my post just got nuked so picture a deep post here about me being an usher in a wedding this weekend, hanging at home till Sunday after church when I blasted off and came back up here for class that afternoon, then busy day of classes all day today. Oh, and there was a story about my sim partner calling me a hippy freak for suggesting that she combat her cold with vitamin c and garlic. I think it's just common sense but I guess not to her. And that was really about it. You can thank the internet for cutting out all the fluff lol.

Yep it's official. I decided y'all knew I don't like blogs now so I'm trying out a new blog title. And in case you don't recognize it, yes it is a John Denver song. Alright, well I better get off of here before the nyquill makes me do any other crazy things......

Big Pine Creek. The weekend after the first rain we have after spring break this is were I'll be. 

Wow, this week just drug out way too long. Coming down with a little bit of a cold at the begining of the week doesn't help though. And the fact that were so close to spring break. Whatever it was I'm glad it's over now. One highlight to the week though: I got to fly some pilots from an aircraft charter company back in Indy that wouldn't make a bad first job up to Michigan to pick up one of their aircraft. Not only was it great to be able to just go out and fly without having to constantly be talking to a student, but the aviation world is all about connection and now I know some of the pilots down there.......not to mention that it's a "daughter" company to the one I work for now.......so who knows what God might work out.

So then tonight I was going to go to Navs, but I got back a little later from the airport then I thought I was and that gave me about half an hour to eat dinner. I decided food was alot more important than being on time to navs but by the time I finished eating, got my motorcycle to run, and drove down to navs it was already 8:30 so figured the little that was left of navs wasn't worth risking not being able to start the bike back up to go home. So I just went and drove around Purdue a little looking at all the crazy people and then I relized that I was crazy for being out there cruising around in the cold and went home. lol well I'm going to stop trying to write now because the nyquill is kicking in and I'm not even making sense to me any more.

Oh, by the way......the picture above is of Big Pine creek, one of Indiana's best white water rivers and it's only 20 mi west of Lafayette. I snapped several pictures of it while I was coming back on the ILS yesterday. It looked totally awesome from the air, all the pictures don't do it justice. I so have to build a canoe now or something.......

I better post on here before it becomes an entire month since the last time I did. I guess blogger hasn't really been high on my priority list of late. That and God provided an awesome "new to me" lap top computer that I've just been getting all configured and stuff to work with our new DSL. So yeah now were totally connected out here, DSL and every thing. Verizon sent us a wireless router too......and I think were we hung it on the wall we should be able to get wireless at least as far as the picnic tables in our side yard which will be great when it warms up. Eventually I want to go out there and find out exactly how far it does go. But not till it gets warmer.

This computer has a character all it's own though. It makes so many weird noises just in normal operation that it's almost like it's trying to communicate with you, and it gets a little excited when you feed it CDs sometimes; just starts shakin' and grinding till you give it an understanding little pat on the CD drawer then it's fine. Oh, and don't ever ask it to go into suspend mode.....it'll go to sleep just fine but when it wakes up it's not exactly sure who it is or what's going on. Sounds like me when I don't get my sleep. Speaking of which, sleep is way more valuable to me than blogger, especially right now 'cause I think I'm starting to get a little cold, so I'm going to end here.